If persuasive discourse is best suited to those situations in which an obvious or universally accepted solution is unclear, then climate change is the ultimate rhetorical challenge. It is a policy dilemma that polarises public opinion worldwide. Political leaders, in their efforts to convince diverse electorates of the merits of their preferred climate change approach, rely not only on fact, but on their ability to rhetorically manoeuvre through the climate change debate - framing themselves, the issue of climate change, and the measures that they propose in the most persuasive terms. In this article, I present a profile of the rhetorical strategies used by two contemporary political leaders - President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Julia Gillard - to persuade their large and ideologically disparate audiences to accept their approach to climate change.